NAD Aims To Make Younger Connections

NEW YORK – NAD, the component-audio supplier, wants to make a connection with a younger generation of music enthusiasts who connect to PCs, smartphones and tablets to play music but who have shunned full-size audio components.

The products target a new generation of music listeners who have never bought a CD and who store their music on computers and smartphones, said Greg Stidsen, technology and product planning director for NAD parent Lenbrook Industries. Many of these “digital natives” never heard good sound and are uninterested in full-size audio components, but the new products will provide these consumers with an “audiophile experience” in compact form factors “that work with what people today are listening to,” he said.

All but the USB DAC incorporate stereo amplification to drive a pair of passive speakers of the consumer’s choice.

Just as important, the D7050 network receiver and D3020 DAC/amplifier hold true to the basic component- audio tenet of enabling users to choose their own speakers, upgrade them over time, and add a subwoofer instead of being locked into the performance of a one-piece tabletop digital-media speaker, Stidsen said.

The new products will also help introduce NAD’s core audiophile customers to digital media. “A lot of them don’t know anything about digital music,” he said.

To this mix, NAD is adding the three components, starting with the $499 D1050 USB DAC with asynchronous USB input; the D3020, $499, DAC/amplifier with built-in 2x30-watt Class D amplifier; and the $999 D 7050 network receiver.